


Seek Hell (Seek Peace) With My Power (With My Favour)

by CoyoteStarrksAss



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Ares and Zag talk essentially, Ares holds his hand to make sure Zag doesnt feel lonely as he dies, Blood and Injury, Character Death, Comfort, Hades and Hypnos are more mentioned than actually here, Hypnos was close to bein a one off mention tho but since hes always sleepin near the Pool, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Poseidon is also mentioned btw as is Zeus but theyre just one off mentions unlike Hypnos and Hades, Poseidon's will also be collected, Self-Indulgent, Zag has favour w Ares bc again i love Ares and so i said so, after dionysus' ofc, already gave aphrodite some uwu, and Ares just. not bein focused on fightin, another aspect of war / a batle we can say, felt like writin Zag and Ares interactin tho, hes wounded and he falls into the Pool of Styx thats all the dyin hes got, i Will get every Ares boon, i gave him Two off mentions, i'll be givin ares a lotta nectar when i can get farther than asphodel and uhhhh collect more yanno, it's abt Zag dying but it's not an explicit explanation of him dying ??, no we Will say that :p, okay anyway we're off topic now, on my end, one after the other, this isnt ship related btw i just love Ares a lot, which come after Aphrodite's
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27097594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoyoteStarrksAss/pseuds/CoyoteStarrksAss
Summary: Zagreus has beaten Hades once again, but he can't make it to the entrance to the world outside of his father's domain. He's too injured, too tired, after the long battle, and he finds himself just laying in the snow.All he wants is peace.(Perhaps even some company, despite his failure to mention so aloud, even to himself.)He is granted such by the god of war.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 109





	Seek Hell (Seek Peace) With My Power (With My Favour)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello !! I recently got into Hades after seein gifs and stuff of it on tumblr, and have been consumin it so fast it completely has taken over my thoughts !!!! Love that for me !!
> 
> Honestly. I love Zag. I love Ares. So we get this :D
> 
> (Funny enough, my name is, also, Zag. Call that self love) 
> 
> Jokes aside, this is literally just such a self indulgent idea. It is meant to be nothing more than a self indulgent fic. I just wanted to post it bc it's my first Hades fic !! So hopefully some of y'all like the idea too owo
> 
> As I said in the tags, this rlly isnt meant to be taken as a ship or in any sort of romantic context, so pls dont mention so in the comments !! Ik it's a bit lenient, given this is a game based on greek mythology and we know how that goes, but i'm not interested in any sort of ships in Hades (yes im aware theres a romantic subplot, no i dont see it bc i have no plans on entertaining it other than to collect rewards from it), so pls dont mention any of them !!

He isn’t long for the human world. He returns to the House, to Tartarus, every time, no matter how many times he beats his father in battle. He’ll do it again, soon. It seems to take hours, this time.

And yet, Zagreus finds his moment of peace in the freezing ichor- and blood-covered snow, despite the looming prospect of death. 

He knows he probably won’t make it to the entrance, this time. His father had been training, he thinks distantly, evident in the new attacks he had displayed in their battle. He’s bleeding from his torso due to one of those attacks, the gash too deep and too fresh to heal on its own. With no extra boon, no extra strength, and no item to help such a process along, Zagreus submits—for once—to the idea that he will die because of his father. 

He finds some comfort in that. A deep-seated, odd comfort, but a comfort nonetheless. It means he knows his place in the man’s world; Hades, his father, god of the Underworld, will do anything to Zagreus to prove to him that his quest to escape Tartarus, to escape his responsibilities, to find his mother, is foolish in his eyes.

That includes killing him.

(It’s no shock. It never had been, Zag thinks. It’s the one thing he isn’t angry at Hades for.)

“You know, if you weren’t a little godling, you would be forced to do as I bid for eternity due to dying in battle, my kin.”

Zagreus’ mismatched, green and red eyes open up, blinking away the grey light of the sun—what he assumes is light from the sun, the sky is never not cloudy when he exits the Temple of Styx, at least—and the snow that had fallen upon his eyelids to try and search out the one who had spoken. He doesn’t have to look hard, or long, for that matter- they’re standing above him, kneeling down so he can see their features clearly.

The odd streak of light across the red eyes, almost glowing with flames. The dark skin, a not-so-strong contrast to the dark grey-white hair atop their head. The dark laurels adorning the side of their head, above their ears. Armour on their person, gold pauldrons holding the torn red cape that cascaded down their back catching Zagreus’ eyes before he looked at the rest of them. The dual swords were not at their back at the moment, nor was their golden helmet tucked into the crook of their arm, as it normally was. Neither did they hold the blade stained red—whether with blood or their Magic, Zagreus had never known—in their hands. 

“Lord Ares.” Zagreus greets the god as strongly as he is able, trying to not let blood enter his mouth to spill out as he speaks. If Ares seems to know, the god does not let on. Zagreus also makes no attempt to correct the god in that he is not dying _in_ battle, only _because_ of battle.

“You’ve fought well in your battles thus far, my kin.” He continues on, and it may have been due to the blood he was losing, but Zagreus thought he could hear pride shining through the words. 

“You’ve brought death to many of your enemies, and continue to do so even when you start back at the beginning. It is a commendable feat, my kin.”

Zagreus chokes out a short chuckle, allowing himself to believe the pride is really there. It brings him some warmth, which he is grateful for, as the snow beneath him ebbs it away. 

“I suppose this is their way of getting back at me.” He finds the energy to joke. “To continuously die by my father’s hand must be no coincidence.”

Ares makes a noise of amusement, and there’s a look in his eyes Zagreus doesn’t recognize immediately, but feels like he has seen before. 

“I would not doubt so. One’s enemies have power even in death. Something I would have taken for you to know, my kin, seeing as you are the son of the Underworld’s Master himself.” 

Zagreus wants to groan, but he does so out of pain instead of annoyance, the small movement he had tried to take to sit up making his body protest. He’s not rising from this spot, near to the mouth of the water his father had called the sea many times, he realizes. Zagreus’ uncle Poseidon’s domain, that is what it allegedly is. 

And yet, Ares, son of his other uncle Zeus, and thus his cousin, is who greeted him in these final moments. 

It is Ares who makes a face of empathy, if only for a moment. 

“Don’t bother with it, my kin. You know how this will turn out.” He tells the other almost apologetically. It pains Zagreus in a new way, but he says nothing of it. 

“I’m not exactly comfortable.” Zagreus allows himself a moment of irritation, and it makes Ares’ top lip quirk up at one end. The god’s amusement is more apparent in his voice, however, than in his appearance. 

“I would not be either, if I were in your place.

“As an Olympian, however, I would not be in it long.”

Zagreus closes his eyes at that, his breathing beginning to become a heavy burden for him to undertake. His vision was blackening at the edges, and he’d rather not watch the tunnel close in on him.

Ares seems to take his lack of response as defeat, because Zagreus can hear him shifting in the snow, his presence moving from above him to beside him. He’s sat next to his right arm.

“You will make it there, my kin. We will continue to assist you even as you fall back to the start. We will find any method it takes to ensure you get past the entrance, assuredly without death being your first greeting when it is found.

“You will come to know the others of your family.”

This is the first time Ares has spoken… Perhaps not gently, for the god does not ooze gentleness. Whether that is a case of _ever_ or _once in a blue moon_ , Zagreus has yet to see, but now is not the time. 

No, Ares is merely speaking without intimidation, without fight and battle. 

No… Perhaps even that is wrong.

For what is any battle without its calm when it is over?

“I look forward to it.” Zagreus answers weakly. It is a stretch of the truth; for now, at least, he no longer wants to greet the pantheon of gods that assist and await him eagerly from Mount Olympus. Not until he finds his mother. He’ll work his way to the mountain after he has located her, not a moment before.

He just has to stop being killed at the door to the mortal realm.

“For now, though… I think I simply want peace.”

He imagines the care in Ares’ now-becoming-distant voice, Zagreus does. Ares is not a god to care easily, and while he had been gaining the god’s favour as of late with bottles of nectar, he is sure that’s not enough to warrant care. 

—He imagines that all the way up until Ares takes his calloused and bloodied hand, weapon long forgotten in the snow somewhere away from him, and sets his own atop it. 

“As you will not be joining the denizens of shades under my command—which is an honour of the highest degree, if you’ll allow my being so bold to say, my kin—I see it fit to honour such a request in turn of your prowess.

“So long, of course, as it ensures your attempts to continue, and our Olympian efforts to not be in vain.” Ares adds on, but Zagreus senses that it is more out of principle than it is to be true exchange. 

_I wouldn’t dream of stopping._ Zagreus has no energy left to say so, but he hopes the god hears him all the same. A part of him thinks--knows--that he does. 

_Not now, not ever._

_Only for a moment, however, to rest._

Zagreus has not rested in so long. He is always so full of energy, of life—he simply cannot find the want to let himself lay still, most of the time.

This is not such a time. Not with the warmth of the god next to him, which he has realized to be true and not of his imagination. He relishes in the feeling, envisions himself holding it close, since he does not know when he will next be able to experience it. Most certainly not from any of those in the House that he will be returning to.

(Not because there are none who love him there, of course, but simply because it is not their disposition to be so warm.

Though maybe that’s wrong. After all, Zagreus did not expect to receive care from the war god, and yet here he is beside him. Holding his hand, ensuring him an anchor of peace in the calm silence of the battle that has been over for none-too-long.)

Zagreus has his moment of peace, and as he feels himself sinking into the blood of the River Styx, the feeling of the god of war’s hand is the last thing to leave him.

(He is almost unwilling to admit to himself that he misses the feeling already.)

And when he awakens in the House of Hades, the House of his father, and when he shakes his hair free of any clinging blood, Zagreus realizes something had been pressed into his palm by the god before he had disappeared from him. He ignores Hypnos, the god of sleep, whose workpost is near to the opening he came from, for the time being to look at it.

It is a note. The scrawl is obviously the war god’s writing, but Zagreus reads it easily. It makes him smile, comforted to know that the god is still as expected even when he is defying those expectations, and gives him the boost to continue on as he grips it in his hand to discard later. It is not meant to be seen by any other.

_With my power and resolve, wreak upon all of your enemies a hell they have heretofore not known, my kin._

_And reach your goal of peace with my favour yet._

**Author's Note:**

> Here we are at the end !! Yay :D !! 
> 
> I'll probs have more Hades fics up as long as im interested in it. for anyone who happens to know me in other fandoms (specifically obey me); sorry, but those wont be churnin out as one shots for awhile most likely bc of it !! the multi chap fic, however, will be updating as soon as i finish satan's half of chap 3 !! pls expect it by, at the latest, halloween given life allows me to finish it then (bc remember, im a college student and v busy) !!!
> 
> In any case; thank you sm for reading all the way here, it means sm to me !! Pls leave a like and comment if you enjoyed this; it ensures I keep writin at all !! In fact, you should always leave smth to let the authour / creator of a media know u like their work, as it keeps our confidence up and lets us know ppl are consuming our work positively !! it'd also just rlly mean a lot and i'll give u a heart emoji if im on my phone when i see ur comment (u will get a <3 if im on my laptop) !!


End file.
